TechTalk Blog

The True Wake of Data Loss

by
Megan Wittenberger
| May 14, 2014

This post is authored by David Friend, co-founder and CEO of Carbonite.

As an entrepreneur and co-founder of six technology companies, I know what it takes to run a small business – blood, sweat and many tears. In 2005, my business partner and I started Carbonite to provide a simple and affordable backup solution for consumers to help protect their data. But in the midst of the company’s growth we noticed something else: we weren’t just helping consumers; we were saving small businesses too!
It became increasingly clear that the fundamental pillars on which Carbonite was founded (security, ease-of-use, and affordability) were applicable and desirable to small businesses.
Data loss can have a huge impact on small businesses. The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) states that anywhere from 40 to 60 percent of small businesses fail to reopen after a disaster, primarily due to data loss.

As most IT personnel have experienced, the impact of data loss is more than just financial.
Carbonite recently surveyed 500 IT professionals from businesses with fewer than 100 employees about data loss and backup systems. Nearly two-thirds (62 percent) of IT professionals surveyed had experienced some form of data loss in their careers.
SMBs must be extremely protective of their data, for it’s not just their livelihoods at stake. There are 28 million small businesses in the U.S. who, according to Forbes, employ more than 50 percent of the current working population. With such a large portion of the U.S. workforce at small businesses, it is important that those employees remain content and secure in their positions. Mitigating the risk of data loss through automatic online backup is one thing SMBs can do to achieve that.
IT professionals who have experienced data loss note that the effects go beyond just the financials of the business. Respondents in our survey (20 percent) found that employees were negatively impacted by data loss as well, including:

Work/life balance of employees suffered (25 percent)

Office morale suffered (24 percent)

The IT department became micro-managed (21 percent)

Employees were fired or laid-off (15 percent)

Employees quit (11 percent)

Naturally, financial impacts due to either profit loss or a missed business opportunity were cited the most, at 33 percent and 32 percent respectively.
Carbonite takes the data backup pain points of SMBs seriously. It’s our number one priority to provide solutions that are secure, easy to use and affordable, while allowing employees to focus on their work without having to think about – or worry about – their data. That piece of mind for employees as well as business owners is invaluable.